Eddie Hearn told promoter Leonard Ellerbe that he wants the Shakur Stevenson vs. Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis fight to happen in 2025.
Matchroom boss Hearn wants the Tank-Shakur match to happen within three fights, and he’s not interested in waiting to let it marinate to make it a bigger money-maker.
Hearn signed the WBC lightweight champion Shakur (22-0, 10 KOs) to a two-fight deal with Matchroom, and he hopes he’ll extend next year for a mega-PPV unification against Tank Davis.
Unfortunately for Hearn, Ellerbe didn’t sound enthused with his quick timeline for a Tank vs. Stevenson fight, and he says it will happen eventually.
Ellerbe didn’t come right out and say what the real problem is, but obviously, it’s the two back-to-back subpar performances from Shakur against Artem Harutyunyan last July and Edwin De Los Santos.
There was a lot of booing from the fans at those events, and it wasn’t because of De Los Santos and Harutyunyan. Shakur did not come to fight in the way the fans had expected, so they let him know about it.
To make the most amount of money, Shakur needs to get four good wins under his belt, where he fights in the pocket and shows that he can win without running. The fight against Cordina is a useless tune-up fight that does nothing to build interest for a clash against Tank
What Shakur needs are wins over these fighters:
- William Zepeda
- Denys Berinchyk
- Abdullah Mason
- Raymond Muratalla
- Vasily Lomachenko
“I feel that we’ve got a two-fight plan with Shakur, hopefully extends. Joe Cordina, Zepeda in February. I think Tank vs Shakur is one of the biggest fights in the sport. I think Tank is so exceptional it’s going to take someone as good as Shakur to give him a real fight, and I love that fight,” said Eddie Hearn to the media about his wanting to make a fight between Shakur Stevenson and Gervonta Davis next year.
“Tank loses rounds. I think Shakur’s the man to beat him.”
It’s not a sure thing that Shakur will defeat William Zepeda (31-0, 27 KOs) in February. That’s a tough fight for Shakur, and even if he wins, it will likely be in the same fashion as he did in his narrow victory over De Los Santos on November 16th last year in Las Vegas. Shakur was on the move the entire fight and looked like he was running at times.
Shakur doesn’t possess the offensive firepower to beat Zepeda without using movement because he’s able to stand and trade with fighters with power in the 135-lb division like he’d done when he fought at 126 and 130.
Stevenson could take their power better, but since moving up to 135 in 2023, he’s seemed timid and unwilling to stand and fight. That’s why it’s surprising that Hearn bothered to sign him as a free agent. But given the big hurry that Hearn is in to set up the Tank Davis fight, it appears that his main interest is to get the lucrative fight with the Baltimore native.
After that, Shakur may have lived out his usefulness because there are no other well-paying fights for him at 135, and he’ll likely be in need of a lengthy, expensive rebuild if Tank knocks him out.
